Epilepsy : in what class of cases, and under what circumstances, may we reasonably hope for cure in epilepsy? / by William Camps.
- Camps, William.
- Date:
- 1866
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Epilepsy : in what class of cases, and under what circumstances, may we reasonably hope for cure in epilepsy? / by William Camps. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![in very bad, severe cases, a few hours ; still, this protracted dura- tion of the attack does not, however, often occur, except in that variety of the disease called apoplectic epilepsy. I have said that the cry or scream that ushers in, or precedes the attack is very peculiar and remarkable, and must be heard to be recognised as forming a part in the epileptic paroxysm. A very short time ago I was at Ealing, visiting a patient there, affected with another variety of nervous disorder, when, whilst walk- ing in the village, waiting for the return train to town, my attention was suddenly arrested by a loud, peculiar cry, or scream, which informed me at once of something wrong in the nervous condi- tion of some one or other, although I saw nobody near me. On looking along the road, however, as far as my eye could reach, I perceived two men, apparently engaged in a scuffle or struggle ^vith each other in the middle of the high road. On approach- ing these two men, I discovered them to be an epileptic gentle- man with his attendant; the former having been seized with an attack or paroxysm of epilepsy, made known to me by the pecu- liar cry or scream which ushers in the seizure. This was as severe a paroxysm of the disease as any I had witnessed for a very long time. ’^Tien the spasms cease and the consciousness is restored, the patient does not at once recover the full use of his faculties, but commonly falls into a heavy sleep, from which he awakes with headache. Then in a few hours, or, at most, after a day, you will find him quite restored to his ordinary state. In bad cases, the intellectual powers are gradually lost, and more espe- cially the faculty of memory. Besides paroxysms such as those just now thus briefly described, many persons subject to this disease have very slight affections, which are called faint turns,' le petit mat, or by other names. In some of these, the attack of the affection is so slight, that very little, if any, change of the coimtenance is perceptible. In others, the face turns pale and then becomes very red, and the whole is over in a minute or two, or even in a less space of time than that. The shortness of the duration of these faint turns, these seizures of mal, is very remarkable. I have heard of the patient of one physician who experienced tliem very frequently when walking, or when en- gaged in conversation, while those around him discovered no change, no alteration whatever, in his appearance. The patient described them as con.si.sting in a stoppage, an arrest of all action of the mind, analogous to stoppage of light to the eye by inter- posing-a dense body suddenly before it. Many ]fiiysicians, and amongst these must be mentioned Dr. Marshall IlaU, appear to me, to have attached far too much importance, as regards pro- gnosis, to these attacks of faint turns, or Ic petit mal. A human being may be .said t(j be lialde to attacks of this 1](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22342369_0009.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
